The present invention relates to a surgical apparatus and method for tattooing a patient for a surgical procedure, and, more particularly to a universal procedure and associated instrumentation for tattooing radiation patients for purposes of identifying target points for repetitive radiation.
Tattooing in a hospital setting must be sterile. Any injection received in a hospital setting should be as clean as possible to reduce patient harm. Current methods for patient demarcation or tattooing in conjunction with radiation therapy utilize unsterile modalities for applying the ink for the tattoo. In a typical procedure, the ink is provided in a common inkwell which is subject to a number of contaminants during use. Specifically, the inkwell becomes contaminated once it is opened. Thereafter, the repetitive insertion of tattooing needles/syringes on multiple patients introduces additional contaminants which, may additionally increase the potential for transmission of infectious diseases between subsequent patients.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a new standard procedure or protocol, and associated instrumentation, for applying a surgical tattoo. In a preferred embodiment, a method for surgically tattooing a patient, comprises the steps of providing a sealed ink dispensing instrument having sterilized tattoo ink therein and defining a port for dispensing said tattoo ink, dispensing the tattoo ink from the port of the ink cartridge, directing the tattoo ink with respect to predetermined body tissue of a patient to mark the body tissue and disposing the ink cartridge after use on the patient. The ink dispensing instrument may have a deformable ink cartridge with the tattoo ink therein whereby the step of dispensing includes deforming the ink cartridge to dispense the tattoo ink under pressure. A needle may be connected to the ink cartridge adjacent the port such that the tattoo ink is passed through a lumen in the needle to mark the predetermined body tissue.
A surgical ink dispensing instrument for facilitating surgical tattooing of a patient is also disclosed. The dispensing instrument includes an ink cartridge defining an internal chamber, and having a port in communication with the internal chamber and sterile tattoo ink disposed within the internal chamber of the ink cartridge. The ink cartridge may be substantially flexible to permit the operator to deform the ink cartridge to expel the tattoo ink through the port. An end cap is removably mounted to the ink cartridge about the port to substantially enclose the port. The ink cartridge may define a generally elongated portion for engagement by the user.
The method and instrumentation of the present invention ensures the use of sterile tattoo ink in each tattooing procedure thereby overcoming disadvantages of current practices used for surgical tattooing.